Changing the World, One Person at a Time
Here I am, smack in the middle of my first week interning for Good St. The start of a new, exciting experience.
To be fair, it’s not my first time doing work with Good St. During the school year I was a member of the “Postal Team,” looking for causes and charities, and crafting them into those educational daily emails that all the Streeters love so much.
But there’s something different this time around. Rather than spending an hour a week thinking about Good St., about how individuals can come together to make big change, I find myself fully immersed in a more permanent Good St. mindset. I have all the time in the world to think about what this organization stands for, what it can accomplish, and what it ought to accomplish.
And if there is one thing I keep thinking about, it is the relevance of the individual Streeter. Those individual specs, collectively forming a massive blob of goodness. That small, insignificant Streeter, who somehow has the power to change the world.
Yes, I know. It’s quite a lofty goal. There are a lot of things that need to be changed in order to make this world a better place to live. But if there is any movement that can accomplish that lofty goal, it has to be a grassroots one like Good St. Not only have we given thousands of dollars to good causes, but we occupy a space that changes the way we think. We learn about others: their pain, their joy, their story. And when we internalize the experiences of others, learn about and sympathize with them and their experiences, we gain a greater grasp on what it means to be human.
And that, my friends, is how Good St. ought to change the world. In the short term, the charitable donations are crucial. They pay for causes that improve the lives of thousands, and the world they inhabit. Yet, ironically, the ultimate goal of an organization like Good St. is for charities to be a thing of the past. After all, the ultimate goal of a charity is to help those who are not being helped by the mainstream forces in our world. Our goal, which can be achieved by growing, and growing, and growing some more, is to change the mainstream forces of the world, by connecting enough individuals around that common goal.
In theory, it’s a doable dream. We live in the 21st century, a time when mankind can connect as a species in ways that were previously impossible. By coming together, and learning about all of the issues affecting our world, we have the ability to breed a new generation of leaders, to affect the leaders of our generation, and to make the world a better place.
So next time you get an email from Good St., think about what an amazing opportunity you are a part of. A generation that is learning to pay attention to all human suffering, whether across the street or across the globe. A generation that will never give up on their dreams.
